


The Shadow of War

by the_13th_battalion



Series: Comfortember 2020 [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Hugs, I just can't give Obi-Wan a break heck, Nightmare, So much angst, im so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27605825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_13th_battalion/pseuds/the_13th_battalion
Summary: After a long, hard won battle, Obi-Wan has a terrible nightmare. But he's not alone. His family is always there for him.
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Comfortember 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999033
Comments: 8
Kudos: 105
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	The Shadow of War

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO THERE I'm back with prompt #3, "nightmare"! This one again got way angstier than I planned heck I'm just a bundle of angst and I can't give these boys a break I guess...oops.

Anakin had heard Obi-Wan scream before.

He had heard the soft, half stifled cries as he lay fighting a fever in the Halls of Healing. He had heard the sharp yelp as a fist connected with his jaw. He had heard the shocked gasp when little Anakin jumped out to scare him and the agonized sob as Kix coaxed him onto a stretcher on Geonosis.

Anakin had never heard Obi-Wan scream like _that_ before.

This cry wasn't the first to shatter the stillness of night. The men of the 501st and 212th had been in battle for a long, terrible week. The loses had been high, higher than either battalion had ever seen. The grief and pain in the Force had been palpable enough to bring Anakin to his knees when the fighting finally ceased.

It wasn't the cry that turned Anakin's blood to ice; rather, the source.

He sat bolt upright. His wild eyes zeroed in on Obi-Wan in the bunk across the dark room. He wouldn't have been certain he'd heard Obi-Wan scream at all if another hadn't ripped from deep in his chest.

Anakin sat frozen, crippled by the waves upon waves of grief and terror smashing into him from Obi-Wan's completely unprotected mind. He shuddered as several guttural sobs accompanied a horrible shriek, bearing all the devastation of a man torn apart.

Anakin stared and clutched his blanket like a frightened child until the ice sealing his joints cracked. He leapt up, socked feet fumbling to be free of the blanket, and flew to Obi-Wan's side. He grasped his shoulders even as Obi-Wan's thrashing limbs fought his grip.

"Obi-Wan!" he cried, "Wake up! _Obi-Wan!_ "

With a sharp gasp, Obi-Wan's eyes snapped open. Wide, glassy blue eyes searched Anakin's face frantically. Sweat slicked palms grasped for purchase on Anakin's tunic.

"Anakin?" Obi-Wan whispered hoarsely.

"It's okay," Anakin soothed, "You're on the _Resolute_. You were having a nightmare."

"Oh. I thought... It felt like..."

 _I was still there,_ Anakin mentally supplied. "I know," he said out loud, "Let me get you some water."

He gently pulled himself out of Obi-Wan's grip, squeezing his hand before he stepped away. He retrieved a glass and filled it. As he watched the water flow into the cup, he thought of the rain on their last day of battle. It had come suddenly, drenching them all in seconds. It ran in little rivers through trenches and settled in muddy footprints. It pattered against the armor of brothers who wouldn't get up again.

Anakin shivered. He shut the water off, forced the memories back, and returned to Obi-Wan.

He approached quietly. Obi-Wan had sat up against the wall, his blankets bunched in a heap at his side. Tousled copper hair hung across his forehead. Dull eyes stared down at upturned palms, at hands coated with blood long since washed away, holding a phantom trooper as his chest stuttered with one final breath.

Obi-Wan lifted his gaze as Anakin neared. He accepted the water with a forced smile. Anakin sat on the bunk as Obi-Wan drank. He pressed his back to the wall and his shoulder to Obi-Wan's.

Silence stretched out between them. Obi-Wan finished the water and set the cup aside. Anakin prodded Obi-Wan's shields, hastily raised when awareness had returned, but met resistance.

He opened his mouth to address it. Obi-Wan managed to speak first.

"I'm sorry I woke you."

Anakin frowned. "Don't worry about it."

"I should have stayed in my quarters on the _Negotiator,_ " Obi-Wan insisted, "Then I wouldn't have bothered you."

Anakin raised an eyebrow. "Do you honestly think Cody wouldn't have heard you and come running?"

Obi-Wan bit his lip. He didn't reply.

Anakin reached out and took Obi-Wan's hand. "Obi-Wan, you always encourage me to talk about what I'm feeling. 'Don't bury it', that's what you've always told me. Talk to me now. Please. Tell me what you're feeling."

A wry smile quirked up the corners of Obi-Wan's mouth. "So you do actually listen to me."

Anakin grinned. "Sometimes."

Obi-Wan closed his eyes. He took several calculated breaths. "I can't stop thinking about the men we lost. The count keeps ringing in my head. And it always does, no matter how small the number might be, but...but they're men and they're fighting and dying for _what_?"

A beat of silence passed. Anakin held his breath.

"Every time I walk past my troopers," Obi-Wan continued in a near whisper, "I wonder which of them I'll hold as they die, and which of them I'll comfort because I know they've lost a close brother. Every time I return to the Temple, and I greet another Jedi, I wonder if I'll ever see them again in person, or if they'll be another name in a report of casualties.

"The other members of the Council, they like to talk about how we're 'keeping the peace.'" Obi-Wan laughed humorlessly. "But even though they've seen battlefields like we have, they are all _blind_. They can't see, or refuse to see, that there is no 'keeping the peace.' There is violence, and destruction, and death. Innocent people die every day. There are _children_ on battlefields, and children and Jedi go out every day and fight and bleed and kill and die because they believe they're 'keeping the peace' but _there is no peace_. I close my eyes and all I can see is blood and death and the Force is crying out for help and there's nothing I can do and I don't know how much more of this I can take."

Obi-Wan's voice cracked and broke off. A trembling breath rattled in his lungs. Even in the dark, tears glistened on Obi-Wan's cheeks. Anakin squeezed his hand and nudged his shields again.

_Please let me in. Please let me help you._

"I don't know how much longer I can go on. Anakin, I'm so _tired_."

Obi-Wan's shields dropped. Anakin's heart shattered.

Obi-Wan curled against Anakin as quiet sobs wracked his body. The same pain collided with Anakin. He rose up to meet it, smoothed out the crashing waves, and sent them back as gentle crests of warmth and light.

_I'm here. It's okay._

Anakin hummed a tune he'd often heard Obi-Wan sing. He threaded his hand through his hair and breathed slowly, coaxing Obi-Wan's lungs into a rhythm. He continued until the tension in his shoulders eased and his Force signature had dulled to the soft glow of peaceful sleep.

The door slid open. Ahsoka, wrapped in a blanket, stepped in the room. The door closed with a soft _click_ behind her. She shuffled to them with a yawn.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey, Snips," Anakin replied, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm okay." Ahsoka crawled into the bunk and leaned against Obi-Wan's back. "I was in the barracks. Somebody's gotta make sure Rex gets some sleep."

A pang of regret flickered in Anakin's core. "Are the men okay?"

Ahsoka nodded, her cheek rubbing against Obi-Wan's shoulder. "As okay as they can be." She snaked her arm out of her blanket and draped it across her grandmaster's chest. "Is Master Kenobi okay?"

Anakin caught her hand. He sighed. "He will be, when this war's over."

Ahsoka hummed in acknowledgement. Her eyes slipped closed. "What about you?"

He rubbed circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. "I'm okay. Go to sleep."

He listened as her breathing evened out, matching his and Obi-Wan's gentle cadence. He pulled Obi-Wan's discarded blanket over them. He watched his family sleep for a long moment before he let his heavy eyelids close.

_I'm okay as long as I'm with you._

**Author's Note:**

> Lingering Melida/Daan trauma, anyone?


End file.
